Being a sheep ...

... and following along with the flock doing a "quick" 2013 round up.

January:

• Still (quietly) patting myself on the back for winning Austral Bricks WA Employee of the Year for 2012.  The fact that I managed to (unintentionally) insult the Managing Director and keep my job apparently got me more points than all the work I did, but I'll take the win (and the $1500 Flight Centre voucher .. woohoo!  I can see a nice holiday in my future).
• Actually went out quad bike riding with the boys (all four of them) and didn't kill myself, break anything or hurt anyone else .. go me!
• Celebrated Alex's friend Chris' 18th birthday at Sizzler's in Kelmscott.
• Managed to get some more of the backyard finished and made some quirky crafty items for my upcoming birthday.  Bowls made from old records anyone?

February:

• Finally got the backyard landscaping guy to come back and finish it.
• Turned 40 ... aaaargghh!!  Celebrated with a 70's themed birthday party and had a great time.
• My 'baby' boy, Brad, turned 14!  Where is the time going??

March:

• Painted the 'spare' room for Mum to move into while she builds her new house.
• Tried my hand at fruit and vege gardening...

April:

• Let Alex drive us up to Ikea for a day out only to have his car die on the Cedric St off-ramp .. thank God for RAC road patrol! $250 for a new battery later, we were able to get his car going again just in time to go home.
• Celebrated Debbie's 50th birthday with high tea at Little Nich's Cafe.  Nice food, dribbly teapots and lovely company .. great day!!
• Clare came over to have a ride on the scooter to practise for her trip to Greece.  
• Commiserated with Deb over her baby, Amy, turning 16.

May:

• Had an early Mother's Day celebration with Mum, Clare, Rich and my tribe at the Mundijong Pub.  Peter and Richard went for a country motorbike ride first and met us there.
• Took Andrew and Debbie to see Cirque Du Soleil's OVO show.  Fantastic night out except for the bucketing down rain :-(
• Mum moved in.
• Went to Tasmania for our 20th wedding anniversary with no kids and using the voucher I won. Awesome but tiring (not for the reason you think ... get your mind out of the gutter!)
• Had another Mother's Day celebration when we got back from Tassie.  Love, hugs and presents .. yay!
• My middle baby, Drew, turned 16.  He booked himself in for his learner's test and passed first time ... go Drew!!

June:

• Ate the first apple from the Pinkabelle tree.  
• Got a wild idea to rip my wedding dress apart and use (what I thought was a hug amount of) fabric for other purposes. (Didn't get very far with that .. there was nowhere near as much silk in the skirt as I thought there was ..oh well).  Made Brad pose for photos in the bodice of the dress, mean mummy that I am!
• Painted Drew's bedroom wall with "racing stripes".  He likes it even if no-one else does!!

July:

• Had to race Xena to the vet in the middle of the night once we worked out that she had eaten almost a whole box of dark chocolate.  Got home at 2am and had to go back to pick her up at 8am to avoid paying another day's worth of ICU charges.  
• Went to Sydney for a work trip ... on the same day that I had raced Xena to the vet.  Couldn't sleep on plane so had an early night when I got there.  Found out that the company hadn't paid for the accommodation in advance so got hit with a huge bill on check out.  Thank goodness for 'secret stash' money...
• Took another trip to Ikea and found some inspiration for what to do on the long wall in the family room.  Besta bookshelves are my new best friend ... I think.

August:

• Had a night at the shed, just Peter and I (despite vowing not to go .. a girl can change her mind!)
• Drew had his first official driving school driving lesson.
• Finally got floor coverings in the bedrooms .. spotted gum floorboards.

September:

• My first 'little baby', Alex turned 18 and somehow became 6'1" tall ... waaahhhh!!  j/k .. so proud of him for the hurdles he's overcome and the wonderful young man he is.  Love you son!
• Had a belated Father's Day (as it was on Alex's birthday .. how rude!)
• Drew bought his first car, a Longreach Falcon ute, which was brought home on the Sunday afternoon and then stolen in the early hours of the Thursday afternoon.  Fire brigade found it on fire and reported it to police.  By the time the Police got there, it had been stolen again and still hasn't been recovered.  Thank goodness for insurance!
• Did some more crafty/practical projects that I will slowly be updating over the next couple of weeks .. I promise!

October:

• Took a week off work during school holidays and spent some time with my growing-way-too-quick boys.
• Thought about going to the Perth Royal Show(for about an hour), regained my sanity and stayed home instead.  Saved amount of money equivalent to the GDP of a small African nation.

November:

• Drew got his official Certificate II in light automotive servicing ..well done!
• Took yet another trip to Ikea .. just because.
• Got the windows tinted in our bedroom, the home theatre (or as I call it, the lounge room), the family room and Alex's bedroom.  Makes a huge difference to the amount of heat coming in from outside.
• Peter bought a new bigger motorbike.  Continued to hassle me about getting my bike licence ...

December:

• Put up the tree with the boys with minimal grumbling (from me!)
• Drew picked up his new car .. 1999 Lantra with very low km's for it's age.
• Made three Pepparkaka Hus kits from Ikea (otherwise known as gingerbread houses for English speakers).  Used an entire year's worth of lollies and royal icing between the three .. yum!!
• Had Christmas breakfast at home, lunch at Mark and Bec's and home again for dinner.
• Quiet day at home on Boxing Day, then out for dinner with Nonnie and Clare down in Shoalwater.
• For Peter's 47th birthday my lovely boss let me take half a day off so we had lunch at Hog's Breath in Kelmscott, then home for presents.  Managed to surprise him with the Springsteen tickets I'd bought back in September as well as the usual littler presents from the boys.
• Quiet New Year's at home with the boys (Mum went out .. has a better social life then me!).  Managed to see in the New Year, then slept like a log until 9am.

So there you go, a whole year in a rather large nutshell.  Here's hoping I can get my shit together slightly more organised this year and manage to post some of the happenings as (or soon after) they happen.

 A girl's got to have dreams ... right? 

Saturday 10/4

Over a leisurely breakfast, we discussed where to go and what to see today. Alex was pushing (really hard!!) to go to the Powerhouse Museum so we decided to head into the city on the train and take it from there.

We arrived at the train station to see one just leaving and were a bit concerned that we would have an hour's wait for the next one. I was looking around for a timetable when I realised there

was actually a manned (personed?) ticket booth with a friendly helpful looking person inside.

After overcoming my shock at there actually being someone around to help (a very unlikely situation on most Perth train stations!), I asked if there was such a thing as a family daytripper ticket. Miss Smiley Face in the booth (whatever she was on, I want some!!) replied that indeed there was and proceeded to sell me one at the jaw dropping price of $45.40. It was about then that I realised we weren't in Kansas Perth anymore. The same thing in Perth would cost less than $10!! Thinking this over later, I did come to the conclusion that there are a lot more trains, buses and ferries in Sydney than Perth could ever aspire to, so maybe the cost was justified after all.

The 9:40 double decker train on the 'light blue' line arrived soon after and the boys were fascinated with the seat backs that flipped over so you could change the direction you were facing. We did a deal with them that we would travel on the bottom level into the city and the top level on the way home, but only if they stopped changing all the seats and just sat down.

It took us just over an hour to get to the central station (there's something like 9 stations in the main CBD) and, after fighting our way through the lemmings people who knew where they were going, we emerged from the bowels of the Earth into the sunshine and headed for the Powerhouse Museum. When the tourist guides said that it was an easy five minute walk from Central, they must have used one of the Olympics' competitive walkers as a guide, because fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the very non-descript building and made our way inside.

I paid the $30 for us all to get in (forgetting to use the discount coupon I had specifically brought with me .. duh!) and we set off to explore. It is the kind of place you could easily spend a whole day or two in and still not see everything. Of course some things didn't interest the boys, or us, but we had a great time checking out the 'Back to the 80's' exhibit. Many great memories for Peter and I and the kids had wonderful fun trying to play all the old video games like Frogger, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong in their original formats on the original equipment. There were so many kids there, all fascinated with the fact that this was as good as it got back then! We spent about 3 hours wandering around, had a quick snack then checked out the souvenir shop. Total and utter waste of space unless you wanted designer home wares or very expensive toys. It was like a high-end department store instead of a souvenir shop. Not one thing was branded as coming from the Powerhouse Museum which kind of defeats the purpose of calling it a souvenir shop, in my opinion.

We walked back to Central station and caught the train over to Darling Harbour to check out the Harbour Bridge (from the ground this time) and The Sydney Opera House. It was getting quite warm so we treated the boys to an ice cream as we walked around to Bennelong Point, where the Opera House is.

There was some sort of triathlon going on, so a lot of the walkways were fenced off to protect people from the bikes speeding past, but we managed to get the boys onto the steps of the Opera House for a photo. If you squint really hard, you may be able to see them up there somewhere...

We then took a walk around to the other side of the Opera House to get out of the sun before heading back to to the train station. We had planned on taking the train across the Harbour Bridge to visit Luna Park, but Peter suggested we take the ferry instead. As you may or may not know, Peter has a 'thing' about boats so this was a very generous offer on his behalf and the boys jumped at the chance. We caught the 3:45 ferry and I realised why Peter thought he would be able to handle the trip .. it took literally five minutes!

We took the obligatory tourist photos out the front of Luna Park and then made our way inside (something with free entry .. yay!) to check it all out. The last time I came here as a kid, it was closed for the season, so it was good to be able to go in and see what all the fuss was about.

I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about, as everything costs an arm, leg and a kidney and was so crowded, there was a 20 minute queue for a bag of fairy floss, let alone the rides! We gave the boys some money but they were soon back complaining that it wasn't worth spending all their money on one ride .. taught them well! .. and they didn't want to wait 40 minutes for a five minute ride. We grabbed some food instead (goodbye kidney .. it was nice knowing you!) and then sat down quietly for a while.

Andrew had started complaining of feeling unwell, so he had a rest on Pete's lap while the other two and I browsed the souvenir shop. Peter got a travel mug with Luna Park on it, but the boys couldn't find anything they wanted so we left and just managed to catch the 5:31 ferry back across to Circular Quay. It was a lot rougher crossing the harbour this time and we were all glad to get off at the other end. After we got off, I noticed that the ferry was named Alexander so that may explain the difference!

We walked back up to the train station and managed to get seats together on the rather crowded train headed back to Glenfield. Drew was still feeling unwell, so he leaned on me until about halfway 'home' when he got a second wind. Then we I had to contend with all three four of them being hyped up and playing silly games, but luckily we had most of the carriage to ourselves so it wasn't too much of an issue.

It was well and truly dark by the time we got back, so we went to find the car (still where we left it thank God!) and went 'home' for dinner and a movie (Underdog). We all went to bed when it finished and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Friday 9/4

The bed in this unit is nowhere as comfortable as the one in Queensland but we managed to get some sleep before being fully awake at 6:45am (otherwise known as OMG-it's-still-way-too-dark-o'clock). We all had breakfast while we continued our discussion of what we wanted to see while in Sydney. The final decision was that we would head out to the Blue Mountains to see the Three Sisters and whatever else took our fancy while we were there.

We arrived in Katoomba in time for morning tea at 10:45, after negotiating enough roadworks to rebuild an entire third world country's road system. We managed to find two bakeries in the main street so the kids had a hefty dose of sugar treat each then we went out to Echo Point to view the rock formation known as the Three Sisters.

As all things are apt to do, the area had changed dramatically from what Peter and I remembered from our childhood visits. The lookouts are actually safe now! We took a lot of photos then decided to take a drive along the tourist scenic route in hopes of finding somewhere nice to have lunch.

We stopped at Leura Cascades which, at first glance, appeared to be a drain 'cascading' into a very small creek. Turns out that that was the rainwater run-off from the road and the actual cascades were about 1.3kms down a hiking track. Seeing as my twisted knee was still giving me plentiful amounts of grief, we walked a small distance along the track and found this little cascade before turning back to the car.

We finished the tourist drive and went over to Scenic World to check out the 'rides'. Had a look around the rather extensive souvenir shop and left without buying anything or taking any of the rides. Managed to get this lovely photo though:

On our way back to Sydney, we stopped at a little roadside stall selling, of all things, ugg boots and cow hides. Peter wanted to buy a cow hide rug for the 'country estate' but I managed to talk him out of it on the grounds that shipping it back to Perth would cost as much as the rug. I liked the design of some of the pieced rugs but resisted the temptation, satisfying myself with a picture instead:

One of our main reasons for coming to Sydney was to show the boys where their dad grew up so, seeing as it was still quite early, we headed for North Ryde. Peter had a great time showing the boys his old haunts: where his house was (it has been demolished and replaced with a set of units), the old corner shop (also no longer there), the lane way he walked through to get to high school, the six-lane highway he had to cross to get to high school (complete with a fence down the middle to discourage pedestrians which he, of course, just jumped over daily!) and his primary school. The high school has been demolished but here's a photo of him in front of the primary school:

Grown up just a little bit since the last time he was here!

After that trip down memory lane, and a few wrong turns down other streets, we asked the GPS to get us 'home'. It directed us through the city at the beginnings of peak hour and we ended up going through the Harbour Tunnel, as well as almost every other tunnel possible! At least the kids can say they've been under Sydney Harbour but it took us 1.5 hours to get home. The GPS doesn't work in tunnels so we nearly ended up taking exits to heaven-knows-where on more than one occasion!

Once we got 'home', we had to find parking (in the car wash bay again!), then had a quiet dinner and were all in bed by 9pm. All in all though, a very good day out.

Thurs 8/4

Up early this morning to clean up and pack. I had serious doubts about fitting everything into the cases from whence it came, but we managed .. just! Better not buy too many souvenirs in Sydney or we'll be paying excess baggage for sure. Maybe we could just leave one of the kids behind and put the extra stuff in their seat .. hmmmmm, food for thought. Will get back to you on that one ...

Managed to get everything shoved into cases and cleaned up by 9:30am so we headed over to Mark and Bec's to give them the leftover food and to say goodbye. Had a quick chat then got into the car and headed into Cairns, where we had a (very) early lunch at McDonald's (blech!) on the Esplanade. I wanted to do a bit more shopping browsing but we had run out of time, so we went to find a petrol station, to avoid paying the $3 a litre the rental car companies charge!

As I mentioned before, Cairns airport is undergoing a major renovation/extension and as a result, the directional signage was open to interpretation. As you can probably guess, our interpretation was wrong and we ended up delivering the rental car to the right area .. if we were flying international.

The international terminal is not that far from the domestic terminal .. as the crow flies. As we aren't crows, we had to walk there and it worked out to be about 1.5kms. Now I can hear you saying "1.5kms isn't that far" but with our four suitcases, five backpacks, CPAP machine and Peter's 'manbag', as well as the fact that a lot of it was outside, over rough surfaces and in the rain, by the time we fronted up to check in, I was sweating like the proverbial pig (has to be the proverbial pig, because real pigs don't sweat!)

After giving the nice little man at Qantas all of our suitcases and assuring him that I wasn't going to pass out or worse, throw up, from heat exhaustion, we went up to the thankfully air-conditioned departures lounge to await our flight to Sydney.

We took off from Cairns at 1:10pm and had a nice smooth flight until we started our descent into Sydney, when the plane turned into a possessed metal bucking bronco, determined to rid the bellies of all of those in its belly of their lunch. According to the captain, it was mild turbulence. but according to my insides, it was the kind of 'mild' you get after eating a five alarm chili meal .. nothing mild about that people! I'm not normally a nervous flyer but it was enough to have me gripping the armrests on my chair whilst thinking to myself: must.not.scare.children. do.not.show.fear. Luckily the children were distracted by the injustice of only two out of the three having window seats.

Andrew managed to get this shot of Sydney Harbour as we came in to land:

Once we'd survived the mid-air rodeo, landed and walked halfway back to Perth, again, to collect our bags, we then tried to find the rental car office. The office inside the terminal was unattended and had a sign that told us to make our way to their carpark office, with no directions on where that was. After getting caught up in the parade of lemmings crowd of people heading for the exits, I managed to spy the competition's office and figured, quite rightly, that our hire company couldn't be too far away.

We happened to walk in on someone returning their hire car and having a major hissy fit about the fact that they were to be charged for some damage to the vehicle. She was arguing that the damage was there when they picked the car up and that the staff had failed to notice it before it was given to them. She then started spouting on about how they hadn't done their jobs properly and why should she be late for her plane just because they were all stupid. I resisted the urge to point out that she wasn't going to win herself any fans, or any assistance from the 'stupid', inept staff and just had a nice little dialogue in my head instead.

"Did you not read the instructions on your rental form? You know, the ones that state to please inspect the car before leaving the lot and report any damage not noted on your copy to the office staff? The same office staff who were available to you at the ungodly hour of 2am when your flight landed, just to make sure you would be able to get your car? The same office staff who are now staring at you with disbelief and pure loathing while managing to keep their thoughts to themselves?

While you're noticing those looks, you may want to take a look at your partner's face. Can you see that expression? The one that says, 'for heaven's sake, shut up! You know we did that damage so for the love of all things holy, shut up before you get us arrested for making a scene'? Can't see that one? Well guess what sweetheart, everyone else can! Leave while you can!!"

After watching that little meltdown and telling the very apologetic woman who served us that some people just needed a good kick in the pants, we managed to get the keys to our car. this time we ended up with a Ford XR6, with Victorian license plates. Andrew was happy because he's a Ford man. Peter was happy because having the Victorian plates meant the NSW drivers would stay out of his way.

We found the car, inspected it (see stupid lady .. that's how you do it!), then spent the next ten minutes trying to work out how to open the boot. With the Commodore, you push the boot unlock button on the remote and the boot actually pops open. With the Ford, it just unlocks the boot but you still have to find the button on the boot itself to open it.

With that sorted, the boot fully loaded and the GPS programmed, we headed off into the organised chaos that is Sydney traffic. The GPS asked if we wanted to avoid the toll roads and knowing absolutely nothing about the toll system here, we decided to take the safe option of avoiding the toll roads and the possible fines. I worked out that we went an extra 19.7 kms to save what turned out to be a $5 toll. Better safe than sorry though!

We arrived at the unit (one in a complex of 25) and found the garage way too small for the car. After a quick look around, we parked the car in the car wash bay and lugged everything inside. Peter was getting very cranky at this point, so I made the executive decision that it was now officially time to get food.

We went back out to the car to find it was raining quite heavily. Must have brought it with us from Queensland! Headed off to the local shops hoping to find somewhere to get some dinner and found a food court. After a heated 'discussion' with the oldest and youngest boys about what they could have (Peter had decreed no more chicken nuggets and chips), I ended up storming off to find out what else was there and returned with two extremely healthy Wendy's hot dogs. At least they ate them and didn't complain!

Did a quick food shop for breakfast and lunch the next day, then headed back for a shower and bed.

Wednesday 7/4

Slept in this morning .. isn't that what holidays are for? ... then decided to take another trip up to Kuranda to see if we could actually see Barron Falls this time.

It was fairly overcast but there weren't too many low-lying clouds so, after a trek along a lovely rainforest path .. puff, puff, pant, pant, that's my exercise for the year! .. I managed to get some photos of Barron Falls in almost full flow. Taken from the top lookout:

and the bottom lookout: The lack of rain made it so much easier to take pictures but also made it so much more humid so after trekking all the way back up the rainforest trail .. puff, puff, pant, pant .. we poured ourselves back into the air-conditioned comfort of the car and headed for Kuranda.

We sent the kids one way (with their mobile phones of course) and we went the other way. It was lovely to be able to just wander through the shops on our own, especially when we came across a fudge shop! Had to buy some, just to compare to WA fudge. Very nice but not really anywhere close to Candy Cow fudge but I may have to try them both again just to be sure.

It was starting to get quite warm so we poured ourselves into the car again and headed back down the hill to the air conditioned shops in Smithfield, where Peter bought himself a rash vest and new swimming shorts. A bit late considering that we leave tomorrow and won't be swimming in Sydney .. too cold! .. but at least he's got them now. Then it was back to the apartment for lunch to try and use up the rest of the food.

After lunch we went down to the pool with the crocodile slide for a swim .. and for Peter and I to see if the girl that was checking Alex out last time was there again. She wasn't :-( I think he was relieved that he could just enjoy a swim and some more hot chips!

We headed back up to 'our' pool where I jumped inched my way into the freezing water with Brad and Drew. Well, I inched my way in .. they, already being dripping wet, threw themselves in with gay abandon, blue lips and chattering teeth. Can't let a little thing like cold stop them!!

They were just attempting to drown me .. exhibit A: ... when Peter came back from a visit to Mark and Bec to tell us it was time to get out and get ready for our walk down to the pub for dinner. We raced upstairs for a warm shower and quick change and met them downstairs and headed off to Palm Cove via a mangrove boardwalk and the main street along the beach.

Along the way, I spotted some 'sleepy plants' .. no idea what their real name is but we always called them that because the leaves close up and go to sleep when you touch them .. and Alex had great fun showing Lachlan and Kathryn how they worked.

The reason we picked the pub for dinner was that kids eat free .. every little bit helps people! .. but of course it was one of those "one-free-kid's-meal-with-every-adult-meal-purchased" deals. Alex, being a growing boy young man, wanted more than just the usual fare of nuggets and chips, so we ordered him a 300g rump steak, thinking that if he didn't finish it, Peter would. Just for the record, Alex is not a big meat eater; not in the form of steak anyway. He'll quite happily eat mince, sausages, kebabs, etc but not usually a hunk of meat of its own. Peter didn't even get a look-in! It was inhaled in record time and thoroughly enjoyed too, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. File that away for future reference .. Alex likes his steak done medium and hot!

Poor Bec didn't get much of a chance to eat her dinner as Mackenzie was rather unsettled and only wanted Mum; not even Dad would do. I remember those days and am so glad they're over! The rest of us enjoyed our meals and dessert (pavlova nest with white chocolate mousse, berries and cream ... very naughty but extremely yummy!) and then started the walk back.

Why is it that the walk back always seems longer? Nothing to do with the fact that we were now loaded down with food and drink and tired from all the exercise (sorry for the bad language!) of the morning. I was carrying Mackenzie for part of the way home. I had totally forgotten how heavy little ones get and when Bec told me she only weighed 13 kilos, I realised that she was only part of what I've already lost. I couldn't imagine carrying an extra 20 kilos around again!

Mark and Peter stirred poor little Lachlan all the way back by telling him there were crocodiles in the bushes along the beach. Every little noise was attributed to these fierce boy eating crocodiles .. "they only eat little boys because they taste better" .. and by the time we got to the mangrove boardwalk, the poor kid was just about jumping out of his skin. So when Uncle Peter disappeared from the back of the pack, right before the boardwalk, he was quite worried. I threatened to send Peter over to deal with the inevitable nightmares at 3am and funnily enough, he reappeared, none the worse for his ordeal. Apparently, he wasn't tasty enough 'cos he's too old!

In all the commotion at the back of the pack, no-one noticed Alex had gone missing too. Just as we reached the end of the boardwalk, Alex jumped out of his hiding spot and frightened the daylights out of Brad as well as Lachlan. In the ten seconds after he did it, I think Alex thought he was going to get in trouble, but when we all roared with laughter, he relaxed and had a laugh along with us. It was so good to see him being a kid and having fun with his cousins.

We finished the walk back, put all the kids through the shower again and then fell into bed for a well-deserved sleep.

The beginning of the rest ...

of the holiday journal, that is!

Tuesday

I was determined to check out the Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda, so all ten of us headed back up there after breakfast. It was still raining, a fair bit heavier than the last time we came up, but most of Kuranda is undercover so I figured it would be ok ... once we got from the car to the undercover part!

We went to the Butterfly Sanctuary and were the first ones there so we managed to get a tour guide pretty much to ourselves. She was lovely and took the time to talk to the kids, instead of just talking at them. She took us on a tour of the laboratory where they 'grow' more butterflies and moths, then took us to each of the different feeding stations. Each station had a different kind of food so there were different butterflies at each one.

Kathryn was wearing a rainbow coloured outfit (rather bright) and managed to take the fancy of one of the beautiful blue Ulysses butterflies. He didn't want to leave so she just stood there with him on her arm and let all the other tourists take photos. Such a good sport about it all!

I got some lovely photos of all different sorts but will have to play with them a bit to actually find the butterflies in them. They all moved so quickly, it was hard to get decent shots of them!

Once we were finished there, we headed down to check out the Heritage Markets where the boys bought some 'stress heads' (stress balls in the shape of a face with woolly hair) then, after dragging me away from yet another opal store (he's still not getting the hint!), I found the ultimate touristy thing ... a kangaroo fur bikini! Nope, I'm not kidding .. here's the photo to prove it: Who would wear this?? On second thoughts, don't answer that. I really don't want to know!

We did manage to buy all five of us a new hat, Akubra style but a lot cheaper, before having lunch at the fabulous bakery again, after which we all piled into the cars to go to Atherton for some more headstone hunting.

Stopped at a lovely little shop called The Humpy and bought some warm roasted cashews and honey roasted peanuts ... very yummy! Peter bought himself another travel mug (I know .. sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise! Excuse me .. just channelling Gomer Pyle for a minute there!)

Asked at the tourist bureau for directions to the cemetery and had to laugh at the look on the guy's face. Bet that's a question he doesn't get very often! Found out that there's actually three cemeteries but we managed to rule one of them out as the grave we were looking was classed as 'modern' not 'pioneer' .. that is, Aunty Veta died after 1950.

We wandered the cemetery for a while, not having much luck but after checking with the staff at the crematorium, we managed to find her headstone, clean it up and get photos of it for the family tree research.

It had started raining again by then, so we headed back into Atherton for some undercover entertainment at The Crystal Caves. The guy who owns this gemstone shop has built a 'cavern' underneath it and placed all sorts of gemstones and fossils into the walls and ceiling. It's supposed to look like an underground mine, so of course the two big boys didn't want to go .. "It's fake! We'll have coffee and pick you up later!" .. and that's exactly what they did.

Bec and I took the six kids down, with our ultra-sexy hard hats on, to look at all the, to quote Andrew, 'rocks and stuff'. There was a huge amethyst thingy down there so, being the horrible mother I am, I made the boys stand next to it for the obligatory tourist photo. Don't they look impressed??

Once I had dragged them kicking and screaming finished taking the children on the very enjoyable tour, we bought some souvenirs, collected the big boys and then parted ways with the other Hawkins family.

We headed off towards Cairns via the Gillies Highway with a quick detour to the Curtain Fig Tree. Hasn't changed much in five years but I managed to get some photos of the boys. I really like this one of Alex:

And introducing 'Andyinna Jones' (Indiana Jones) and 'Crocodile Bradley' (Crocodile Dundee) in their new hats:

After that nice little stop, it was off to brave the winding, often scary, Gillies Highway back down to the south side of Cairns. Last time we came down that highway, it was pitch black, raining heavily and full of little hazards caused by, and being fixed by, roadworks. Luckily this time we only had to contend with the road and the way it winds back on itself almost constantly. I swear, if not for the fact that you spend most of the time going downhill, sometimes you'd think you were going back the way you came!

A quick stop off at KFC for dinner then 'home' for a quiet night .. what was left of it anyway!

A busy couple of days (part 2)

Monday

I demanded a catch-up sleep-in last night before going to bed and threatened them all, Peter included, with dire consequences if they woke me before 9am. Peter came down to the bedroom, making as much noise as possible, just as I was starting to wake up and started talking about what time we were leaving. I was getting ready to follow through on the dire consequences when I had the presence of mind to ask what time it was. Upon being told it was 10am, I (reluctantly) decided to not pursue the retribution and got out of bed.

We had made plans with Aunty Jenny to go down to the Esplanade for a BBQ lunch on Monday with the rest of the aunts and uncles, but due to the rain, it was changed to Sizzler. I was under the impression we were still going there for lunch, so when Peter started packing for a BBQ, I got more than a bit confused. Turns out Jenny had rung while I was asleep to say that the BBQ was back on.

It was a lovely morning; a bit overcast but no rain. I got to see all Mum's brothers and sisters again, even Aunty Joan who is here on holiday from New Zealand. Mum has 2 brothers and 3 sisters, who were all there, as well as Jenny's husband, her 2 girls and 1 of their friends, Nanna, and the five of us. A lovely time had by all catching up and exchanging memories from other times we were all together.

After lunch wound up, we went back to check out Pete's new girlfriend, Willow, the red-tailed cockatoo at Cairns Dome. She took more pieces out of his hat but didn't make him bleed this time! Tearing Peter away from her, we went off for a quick shopping trip to one of the big shopping centres at Earlville then home for home-made hamburgers for dinner.

Off to Kuranda again tomorrow to have a proper look at the shops and attractions and to hopefully get to go to the Butterfly Sanctuary. I've missed out on going there every other time we've been here and I'm not letting anyone talk me out of it this time!!

A busy couple of days (part 1)

Sunday

Sunday dawned, if you could call it that 'cos we couldn't see the sun, with heavy showers and more clouds than we had seen so far. I had picked Sunday to go on the Skyrail because the weatherman had said that the rain would be clearing; he didn't mention that it would be at midnight into Monday!

The Skyrail trip was still worth it and, to be perfectly honest, I'm kind of glad it was overcast because that meant that we couldn't always see how high up we were! We went through the clouds and were even above them for most of the middle leg of the journey. The kids were a bit underwhelmed in stages (due to not being able to see much) and Bradley was a bit scared of the whole thing, but I think that was due to Bec's teasing and Lachlan's very matter-of-fact statements about 'if we fall, then we die' and 'if we crash into another car, then we die' and ... oh I'm sure you get the picture!

There's a limit of six people to a car/gondola so Bec and I took a car each with whichever kids wanted to go with us at the time. Kathryn attached herself to Bradley so wherever he went, she went. He nicknamed her "The Limpet" and "The Barnacle" and was starting to get a bit frustrated with her when I said that he had to come with me so we could have a photo of the just the four of us at the last station. The look of relief on his face was almost comical!

It was still raining quite heavily when we got to Kuranda and when we phoned the big boys to find out where they were, they told us to walk up the hill to the cafe. Not happy Jan! We all got pretty wet and once we got there, they had decided that it was too expensive to have lunch in Kuranda. Bec and I ordered the kids a milkshake each and a drink for ourselves and then popped into the shop next door to have a look at the 'hippy clothes' (made from hemp and organic cotton).

After that it was a matter of dodging the really heavy downpours to get up the rest of the hill and back to the cars. Because I kept holding them up by daring to actually look in some of the shops and Peter decided to buy himself a new hat, we ended up having a late lunch at the bakery at the very top of the village (and it worked out heaps cheaper than going to McDonald's!) Score one for me!! We had planned on going to the Butterfly Sanctuary but the big boys wanted to go out to Mareeba cemetery for some photos of family headstones and due to it getting late for the little ones, off we went. We wandered all over the cemetery and found what they were looking for about an hour later, then it was time to head back 'home' for dinner.

Peter and I have obviously forgotten what it's like to have little kids as we couldn't believe the day was over, that is we were back 'home', by 5pm! We could have gone out to do something else, but decided to chill out in front of the TV ... just like at home.

A quiet day

After having a bit of a sleep in, Peter and I were sitting quietly on the balcony enjoying our cuppas, when one of his cousins rang. Christine lives near Brisbane but just happened to be on holiday up here to visit a friend and heard we were here, so she came for a visit. Mark and Bec came over with their kids and the circus started. Six kids, ranging in age from 18 months to 14.5 years, plus 6 adults in one area equals noise.

There weren't any toys for the little ones to play with but I found the tennis balls from last night and then Bec and I spent the next couple of hours mediating the 'discussions' over whose turn it was to have a horsey ride from Bradley and who should have the tennis balls.

Once Christine left to continue her trek up to Cooktown, Bec and I went food shopping while Peter and Mark took the kids to the main pool at the resort. It has a slide in the shape of a crocodile and Kathryn was telling the boys all about the 'crocodile slide.' I had Brad and Andrew convinced that it was a slide for crocs to get in and out of the pool and they weren't too keen on going until Kathryn told them I was joking.

The kids had a great time at the pool while Bec and I enjoyed our kid-free shopping experience. Once we got back and unloaded the groceries, we went down to the pool to join them. It was pouring rain but the kids were having a great time, as were Mark and Peter. The difference was that Mark and Peter were having a great time ribbing Alex about the girls that were following him around, checking him out. My baby's growing up .. waaahhh! He was completely oblivious so there's hope for me yet!

After a snack of battered chips at the pool, we walked back to our rooms and had fried ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner ... we'll deal with our cholesterol when we get home!

Off to the Skyrail and Kuranda tomorrow.

And then there was blood ...

Today started out quietly with Peter and I awake before the kids ... again! We let them sleep in until 8am then got them up and organised for another day out. We didn't want to go too far as we had made plans with Mark and Bec to have dinner tonight so we decided to check out the Cairns Rainforest Dome.

The Dome is on the rooftop of the Reef Casino and Hotel and is full of all sorts of birds and other wildlife. We checked out the pademelons, the huge croc named Goliath, koalas, cockatoos, lizards and freshwater crocs. There was a talk about some of the local bird life and when the handler asked for 2 volunteers, Alex decided to give it a go. They both ended up pretending to be a tropical tree by holding a flower in their outstretched hands while the handler squeezed some nectar onto the petals. One of the rainbow lorikeets came down to feed on the nectar and kept jumping between the two 'trees' and walking up and down Alex's arm. His face lit up as soon as it landed the first time but by the end, I think the claws must have been bothering him. He said he enjoyed it but it was someone else's turn next time.

After the bird show, we went to have a look at Peter's favourite bird (apart from me of course!), the red-tailed black cockatoo. As soon as she saw him, she launched herself off her perch and landed on his shoulder. He was ecstatic until she started pulling on his earrings! When he covered them up, she got stuck into the little knob on the top of his cap. She dismantled it completely and then flew off back to her perch.

Peter couldn't leave it at that though, could he? He put his arm out and encouraged her to fly back onto it. As soon as she landed, she started trying to to peck at his watch so he tried to put her back onto her perch. She wasn't having any of that and promptly dug her claws in ... and then there was blood. Not much, but enough to frighten the tourists just walking through the door into the Dome. My comment of "Now that she's made you bleed, it's time to go" probably didn't help much either!

We went back into the souvenir shop where he got some first aid (a tissue and the offer of antiseptic, which he refused), then we watched some American tourists having their picture taken with a koala named Harvey. Typical Aussie male that he was, he had his paw on the girl's boob in all the photos! After laughing at the looks on the male tourists faces once they realised that, we headed back to the car and off to Crystal Cascades.

On the way there, we spotted a McDonald's and gave the kids an early lunch before they started complaining that they were dying of hunger. We were just finishing when Mark rang to ask where we were. They had arrived only to find that their room wasn't ready for them yet. We gave them the code to our apartment so they could have a bit of a rest while they were waiting and said we would see them when we got back. (They left Perth last night at 11pm and flew via Brisbane, with an hour's stopover, to Cairns. If they're anything like us, they would have been dead on their feet!)

I remember Crystal Cascades as a lovely swimming hole in a river just outside Cairns. I came to the conclusion today that time really does change things. Either that or everything just looked really different when I was a kid. It is now a very fast-flowing river with incredibly steep banks and an awful lot of rapids. This may be due to all the extra rain north Queensland has had recently (two cyclones in the area) but I'm starting to think I have just labelled a mental picture wrong.

We walked as far as we could, getting rather wet in the process as all the little waterfalls on one side of the path had turned into things resembling a burst fire hose, spraying everyone within range. The stream water was lovely and cool but as most women know, you can only put up with wet underwear (especially bras) for so long. We went back to the car, dried off a bit and then headed back to the apartment.

Once we got back, we sent the boys straight to the pool from the car so they wouldn't go barging upstairs like a herd of rampaging elephants, waking everyone up. Peter and I went upstairs to check whether Mark, Bec and the kids were still there and if they were asleep. We must have just missed Bec and the girls as we spotted them from our balcony,walking down the driveway to their block. Apparently they had just woken up and headed down to their room, where Mark and Lachlan were waiting.

Peter and I left the boys trying to drown each other trying to deafen the neighbourhood having a 'peaceful' swim and popped over to visit Mark and Bec. Poor Mark looked absolutely exhausted and, after visiting for a while, we left them to have a nap and to let us know when they were ready for tea.

They arrived at about 6:30 so Bec and I sent the big boys out for dinner and beat back the starving hordes with a whip and a chair until they returned. The food was soon inhaled, as were the follow-up ice creams and then the kids had fun playing with some tennis balls I found in the bottom drawer in the kitchen. (What? Don't you keep your tennis balls in the bottom drawer in the kitchen? No? Glad it's not just me that thinks that's a bit weird!) The kids all had great fun playing horsey when the tennis balls got boring, while the adults rest of us entertained ourselves by seeing who would fall asleep the fastest. If we had continued that game to its inevitable end, I'm sure Mark would have beaten the rest of us by a mile.

They ended up leaving just before 9pm and now I am going to head for bed myself as I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow and need a decent sleep 'just in case'. I think we discussed some possible options but for the life of me, can't remember if we're each doing our own thing or going out together. Oh well, I'll find out tomorrow ...

It's raining, it's pouring ...

... but no, I'm not snoring! Not yet anyway ... it's not bedtime and besides I've got a CPAP machine to stop the snoring.

We've had rain for most of the time we've been here but it got a fair bit heavier today. Luckily, we had made arrangements to have lunch with Aunty Jenny and Nanna and to do some indoor shopping so the rain didn't really bother us.

After managing to buy nothing at Cairns Central shopping centre (apart from some brownies, lemon slice and caramel slice) we headed for The Pier for lunch. It was lovely to see Nanna again but she is really starting to look old. The fact that she is 93 and having difficulty walking may have something to do with that, but she still has her sense of humour. When I asked how she's been lately, she said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "old". She then told me that I need to fatten my boys up because they are still very skinny .. just like last time she saw them. Or maybe it's just because I stretched them to make them grow taller. Apparently feeding them is easier than stretching them .. who knew? I hope I'm as well as she is when I'm 93 .. if I get that far!

After lunch we wandered around the shops at The Pier then were headed back towards the apartment when I realised it was the Thursday before Easter and that we didn't have any eggs for the boys or Mark's family (who arrive tomorrow), so we stopped at KMart and did a quick shop. Now the place is full of chocolate and none of it's mine ... waaah!! (Apparently some of it is mine because the boys have bought me something but have hidden it from me ... waaaah again!)

We were headed homewards once more, when Peter spotted the Outback Opal Mine. I had asked to stop in there at some point during the holiday and he remembered and pulled in for a quick look. The boys stayed in the car as it was pouring down again and Peter and I went in to check it all out. It's basically an opal and pearl jewellery shop with a museum section about opal mining. I love black opal (the most expensive kind ... damn it!) and found a lovely pair of earrings and a matching pendant but had to walk away without them. I'm hoping to go back before we leave Cairns but I'm not holding my breath.

Once we got back to the apartment, we all had some quiet time just reading and relaxing before the boys decided it would be fun to go swimming. (Bear in mind that it's raining quite heavily at this point.) I pointed out the rain but they still wanted to go. I knew they were determined to go swimming when they put their towels into plastic bags to stop them from getting wet while they were in the pool. Andrew wanted to keep swimming until the pool lights came on ... easily pleased that one!!

After yelling over the balcony that dinner was almost ready, Peter started cooking dinner. Nothing like the possibility of missing out on burnt 'heavily browned' sausages to make a kid get out the pool in a hurry ... not!! Once they were back upstairs and in the shower, the noise level in the bathroom required some intervention so I walked down there just in time to hear Bradley complaining that it was too steamy. "It's so steamy in here, I can't even see my wang in the mirror." (That's the word of the week at the moment .. 'wang'. Don't ask me where he got that one from ... I really don't want to know! ... and it could be much worse.)

Now I'm sitting in front of the computer screen yet again while Peter has gone out to see if the local fish and chip shop will be open tomorrow night. (A remnant of my Catholic upbringing .. fish on Fridays during Lent.) I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow but at least dinner is sorted out!!

A quiet day

I had a lovely sleep-in this morning and woke to the sound of birds outside. I made a cuppa and then sat out on the balcony in the beautiful cool breeze with Peter, just enjoying the quiet before the boys woke up. Check out part of the view <<<<<<<<

We ended up waking the boys up, gave them breakfast then got into the car intending to go into Cairns to check out the tourist bureau. When we got to the T-junction, Peter wanted to turn right instead of left so we ended up in Port Douglas instead. Peter had a great time testing out the car and frightening the daylights out of me in the process. The road is almost on the beach in several places and the constant rain wasn't helping. Despite that, we made it safely to Port Douglas in time for morning tea.

I was very disappointed that there were no nice little bakeries in Port Douglas ... actually no bakeries at all unless you include the one in Coles supermarket. I was looking forward to a nice cream bun or donut, but still managed to enjoy my date muffin and hot chocolate, while the boys had their good ole standby of chips, at a little cafe across the road from the beach.

We went over to check out the beach and found this sign:

In case you can't read it, it says that there are stingers and crocodiles in these waters so please swim between the flags. I didn't know that crocs could read or that they obeyed the swimming rules and regulations! There was that and then a lifeguard in a raincoat so he didn't get wet! Comforting huh?

The rain started again in earnest so we headed back towards Cairns. I talked Peter into going to the Skyrail terminal so we could book a trip up to Kuranda. It's the one thing the boys said they wanted to do while we're here, so I thought I'd better book it so we didn't run out of time or money, which at the rate we're going is a distinct possibility.

After that we headed back to the apartment where Alex put himself to bed and slept for 3 hours while the other two went down to the pool. Peter and I caught up on a couple of TV shows he'd downloaded before we left Perth then we all had dinner and watched the movie 'Meet Dave'.

Now the boys have gone off to bed so we can just have some quiet grown-up time. Get your minds out of the gutter ... he's watching cricket (again!!) and I'm typing this. Tomorrow we're going into Cairns to have lunch with one of my aunties and my Nanna, as well as a wander around Cairns itself. Might even take a dip in the Lagoon:

I know, I know ... it's a tough life!

We're hee-ere!

We flew out of Perth last night just after 10pm and arrived in Cairns at 4:15am.


I was a bit concerned when I saw how many very young children were on the flight with us. I had visions of having to poke my eardrums with something sharp to stop the noise, until I remembered that there would be nothing sharp on the plane due to all the new rules and regulations. Then my mind wandered to other possible solutions, most of which involved opening the doors mid-flight to eject screaming child(ren) and their parents, if the parents hadn't already committed hari-kari from the sheer frustration of trying to quiet a fractious child 10 kilometeres up in the air whilst enclosed in a fragile tin can with wings. Luckily for everyone concerned, all but one of those children were absolute angels. Unluckily for everyone, the other one tried her damndest to make up for all the rest. Luckily, her cry, whilst being almost ceaseless, wasn't actually that loud. The boys managed to get small snatches of sleep between playing musical seats but they were still exhausted by the time we arrived, as were Peter and I.


Once we got off the plane, we discovered that Cairns airport is undergoing a major renovation so we had to walk halfway back to Perth to collect our bags and organise the hire car. We then went out into the rather wet car park to find our hire car (a literally brand-new Commodore with only 17km on the odometer) and headed for our home-away-from-home in Palm Cove, north of Cairns.


Seeing as it was now close to 5:30am, Peter and the kids decided they were hungry so when we spotted the golden arches, we stopped in for a quick bite to eat and then proceeded to get slightly 'geographically misplaced' .. thank heavens for GPS! We finally found our parking space only to find someone already parked in it, so we comandeered another unit's space, unloaded the copious amount of luggage and went up to our penthouse suite. (It's a really nice three bedroom apartment on the fourth floor with a lovely view out to the hills and over one of the seven pools available for our use during our stay.)


We had a sleep until about 11am then went food shopping. It's amazing how much money you can spend on junk food and ice creams when you're on holidays! Actually, it's amazing how much you can spend on it any time but especially on holidays!

So far this afternoon, we've had a bit of a rest while Peter watched some cricket, had a very relaxing swim in the pool downstairs and now all the boys (Peter included) are watching "The Cannonball Run" while I sit here and think about what's for tea.


A mother's job is never finished ...

The countdown has begun ...

It is now only two sleeps (three if you count the plane trip) until we arrive in Cairns.

As much as I have told myself (and you) that I don't really want to go and that we won't be able to do much due to budgetary constraints, I think I'm actually looking forward to it. (Hey, I'm a woman .. I'm allowed to change my mind! I just wish I could change it for one that worked better and more often!!)

The house has been cleaned, the bags are (almost) packed and the house-sitters have been introduced to the Lord and Master, aka 'The Dog', 'The Boss' or in lighter moments, Brutus. I have to admit, I was rather concerned about his reaction to having a 'strange' male in the house but he reacted to Bevan like a chocoholic when finding an open box of Lindt: initially wary (what's the catch?) then all over him like white on rice. (Sorry for all the similes .. or is it metaphors? I can never remember which is which and surprisingly enough I know, I don't actually care .. lol!)

Isn't it strange the things we women get in our heads to do just because someone else is coming to stay? I was pondering that exact thought just the other day as I sat on the kitchen floor, surrounded by mismatched Tupperware while trying to stop the dog from pinching any to use as a chew toy. There I was, completely emptying out all my cupboards so I could wipe them out with disinfectant and boiling hot water, all because a stranger was coming to stay.

It didn't seem to occur to me to make the front of the house more presentable by pulling out the triffids weeds growing along the edge of the driveway, or to empty both the carports of the extra stuff that I'm sure has parties after we go to sleep (parties that have been advertised on the internet and as a result now other people's leftover junk is still 'sleeping it off' at our place).

It didn't occur to me to me make sure that the numbers on the letter box were all still there so the house-sitters could find the house without the aid of a search party and bloodhounds, lured by the scent of the doggie treats I used to try to distract the dog from the all the lovely chew toys plastic ware strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other.

It nearly didn't occur to me to ensure there was sufficient food for the 'Lord and Master' but luckily one of the children is slightly more on the ball than I, so Brutus will be well nourished during our little trip to the other side of the continent. (The child will be given food but I cannot vouch for its nutritional content as we will, after all, be on holidays and that entitles us to some leniency in our intake of all things artificial .. apparently.)

However, it did occur to me that I simply must:

• paint the main bedroom (which I managed to achieve)
• paint the boys' bathroom (which I did not manage to achieve and have forgiven myself for .. temporarily at least!)
• have matching mats on which to place all the different candles and their decorative holders that I have acquired (despite the fact that they have somehow managed to still look pretty in spite of their lack of a suitable resting place for the past few years)
• clean underneath the fridge and freezer (because every house guest I've ever come across moves the fridge and freezer the second you're not looking .. don't they?)
• re-pot the peace lily that adorns the bench in my ensuite (because the pot was black and every else is shades of brown/beige/blue and we wouldn't want them thinking I'm colour blind)
• torture the children ask the children to help me get the house into some semblance of order by removing their will to live cleaning their rooms ... Yes child! I meant under the bed too! ... even though no-one would be staying in their rooms. (I know, how incredibly unfair of me to make them empty their rooms of dirty clothes, the rubbish in their bins and the mutating lifeforms under their beds and in their school bags.)

And on that cheery little mental image (school bags always make me shudder with apprehension .. eewwwww!), I shall take myself off to the Land of Nod to dream up more torture things for the boys to do tomorrow.

Day 10

Thursday 29/10/09

After finally falling asleep at about 2am, I woke up hoping that the taxi company had found my camera but they hadn’t. Was still feeling pissed off at myself so I sent the boys down to have breakfast while I fumed (and packed) on my own. Came to the conclusion that it was meant to be .. all the talk of karma and the gods must have rubbed off on me .. and resigned myself to not seeing my camera again. The boys were really good about it saying that they have their memories and they don’t need the photos and then Alex piped up with “anyway, you’re so far behind in your scrapping, this will make it easier for you to catch up”. I know he was only trying to help but I couldn’t help laughing/crying.

Arrived with 3 suitcases (one with the laptop in it), 4 little backpacks and my CPAP machine. Left with 4 suitcases, 4 stuffed to the brim little backpacks, 1 large sports bag, 1 laptop bag and my CPAP machine.

Elle and the boys arrived to have a chat before saying goodbye. Left the boys to discuss Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon and went shopping for last minute stuff at the Hard Rock Megastore. Came back to find that our airport transfer bus had arrived so we said our goodbyes and headed out for the airport.

Got to the airport and paid the porters so that I wouldn’t have to try and juggle 3 kids and 11 items of luggage. We could do with some porters at Perth airport .. in fact all of the Australian airports could do with them! Had to hang around the airport for nearly two hours so the boys spent the last of their money on little knick knacks to pass the time. Had Macca’s (again!) for lunch then boarded the plane for the flight home.

I dozed most of the way home while the boys watched the free in-flight foxtel. After a mostly smooth flight, we landed at 6:20 and cleared Customs/Quarantine by 7:20pm. Word of advice: don’t buy woven placemats in Bali .. they’re full of little beasties and AQIS will either seize them or keep them for 2 weeks to fumigate them and charge you $30 (in advance) for the privilege of getting them back. Considering they cost me all of $4, I let AQIS seize them.

Mum met us at the airport and after that we went home, via the takeaway chicken place down the road, by 7:45pm. After dinner, we showed her some of our souvenirs and gave her the presents we’d bought for her. The boys headed for the shower and then Bradley came running down to the lounge room crying about ‘a huuuuge black bug in his room’. Sympathetic mother that I am, I told him to stop being such a sook because it was probably just a hairy spider but he kept insisting that it was buzzing at him. I went to check it out and found a colony of bees had set up a hive on the outside of his window. I told him he could sleep in with me until I got an exterminator to come deal with it. I’d already had him or Drew sleeping in my bed for the past 9 nights so what was a couple more?

Mum finally left at 10:30ish then it was straight to bed for me, complete with nightmares of all the washing to be done and wondering whether the dog would talk to me when I picked him up in the morning. It’s good to be home… I think!

Day 9

Wednesday 28/10/09

Was woken up by a text from Elle saying that she wouldn’t be able to join us as her two dogs had been in a massive fight and needed to go the vet.
After some discussion with the boys, I decided to not go to the Bali Wildlife and Marine Park as originally planned and we planned to go shopping instead. At this point I realized that I had left the camera at Flapjacks the night before in all the kerfuffle over the spilt milk, got the front desk at the hotel to ring and check it was still there and then went down to pick it up.
Took a taxi into Denpasar to try to find some computer stuff Peter wanted, to no avail, then headed back to Discovery Mall to get some stuff for the boys that we hadn’t been able to find anywhere else (stuffed turtle for Brad, turtle figurines for Alex and Brad and some postcards for me).
Had lunch upstairs in the food court overlooking the beach. Boys had chicken nuggets and chips; I had nasi goreng ayam (chicken fried rice). Andrew ended up giving the rest of his food to Alex and sharing the rice with me.
Went downstairs for some more shopping and got some more money out of the ATM… only 3,000,000 this time! Headed back to the hotel for a rest (too hot!), boys went for a swim and then we headed out to Legian where the boys managed to get themselves wet in the ocean and I managed to get some photos of the sunset over Legian Beach. Went up to the Legian Pesar (Art/craft market) where I managed to buy some more souvenirs (but no sarongs!) then jumped in a taxi to go to Elle’s.
Stopped at McDonald’s to buy dinner for all 5 boys then hung around Elle's place chatting for a while before getting another taxi back to the hotel. Realized once we were back in the room that the camera was missing again. Got the front desk to call the taxi company and McDonald’s but it was gone for good this time. It must have fallen out of my bag in the taxi and been picked up by the next passenger or the driver. According to Elle, it would sell for the equivalent of 5 or 6 months wages so the temptation must have been too great for the person who did pick it up. I was really upset at myself and took it out on the boys a bit. I apologized to them later but kept beating myself up because I hadn’t downloaded the photos of Tanah Lot, Ubud, the monkey forest and Legian sunset. At least I had some of the photos from earlier in the trip but I really wanted all the others as they were more about the traditional side of Bali instead of the touristy things like Waterbom Park.

Day 8

Tuesday 27/10/09

Elle and her boys came and picked us up for the 1.5 hour drive to Ubud and the Monkey forest. Mitchell was sitting down minding his own business when a monkey came running down out of a tree and climbed up on to his head. Alex had to bribe the monkey with some watermelon to get it off! Another monkey was investigating Ryan’s sling and trying to take it off him. We worked out that Ryan and Mitchell had used shampoo with banana extract which was attracting the monkeys! Brad and I went into Temple wearing sarong/sashes. Watched monkeys throwing themselves off trees into pond … funny! Baby monkeys very cute but older ones ... not so much!
Had lunch at Deli Cat (322,000rp for 7 people’s lunch & drinks) then walked up to see Royal Palace. All open air pavilions with no walls. Centre one was/is used for teeth filing ceremonies… teeth filed even at age of 17 so that canine teeth are even with the rest of them. (dogs and therefore canine teeth are considered evil/bad) Pavilions have decorated carvings which are coated with real 24 carat gold!
Checked out a few of the shops on the way back to the car and bought a carved limestone tealight holder for Mum.
Went up to a Japanese restaurant where we had a drink overlooking rice paddies where the workers were harvesting the rice. Boys had ice cream and soft drink then we headed back down to Kuta. Stopped at hand-blown glass factory where Elle bought a beautiful bowl and some plates and I bought some frangipani glass plates.
Got dropped off at Flapjacks restaurant where the boys wanted another ice cream and a milkshake each so I indulged them to the tune of 334,000rp! When we were leaving Brad knocked his milkshake glass over which shattered on the table spilling glass and chocolate milkshake everywhere. Apologised profusely and left the staff to clean up the mess… love being on holidays!
Checked out a few more games shops for the boys, bought Andrew some Crocs then staggered back to the hotel for some cool air, a shower and bed.

Day 7

Another short and sweet update...

Monday 26/10/09

Went to Matahari shopping centre to check it out. Bought personalized keyrings for almost everyone.
Left boys in hotel and went shopping with Elle to Toko Dianne and then to pick up her boys from school. She calls it Hogwarts as it is complete with turrets and towers.
Picked up boys and went out to Tanah Lot Temple for sunset .. bit of a failure … but bought more sarongs with the reasoning that they make great presents. Boys had Hindu blessing done while Elle and I checked out the ‘holy snakes’ .. sea snakes hiding out in a cave at the bottom of the cliff. Little man told me to touch and make a wish.
Went up to top of cliff to have a drink and watch the sunset. I had a young coconut to drink and tried to get the boys to have a taste .. only Andrew was game enough! Bought Alex some Crocs at the official outlet at the markets.
Then back to Elle’s for dinner .. McDonald’s delivered to the door just like a pizza.

Day 6

Short and sweet for today...

Sunday 25/10/09

Had breakfast with Brad after Alex & Drew had breakfast together.
Went down to Poppies Lane II for shopping. Getting the hang of this bartering thing. Only one bad experience .. woman wouldn’t let me leave her shop .. kept jumping in front of me, grabbing hold of me and yelling at me .. escaped while she was dealing with someone else…poor suckers!
Went to Discovery Mall and bought more stuff then had Haagen Dasz ice cream for lunch because the KFC here is weird! No nuggets, popcorn chicken, wraps or potato & gravy and if you want chips instead of rice, they charge you extra.
Went to Carrefour (another big supermarket like Makro but cleaner) for more shopping. Price checks done by guys on roller blades. Shop is huge .. about as big as Bunnings warehouse including the garden centre and the yard outside.
Brad and Drew bought themselves a watch each at a little shop on the way out. We’ll see if they last.
Came back to hotel with many many bags. Tried to sort it out but gave up and read a book instead while boys went for a swim. Ended up ordering room service for dinner which Alex threw up in the middle of the night. Nothing to do with the room service food.. more likely to be the many, many packets of Mentos lollies he scoffed with filthy dirty hands while out shopping during the day. Mentos lollies have now been banned and I made him clean up the mess!

Day 5

Saturday 24/10/09

I took a taxi out to Elle’s this morning and the driver went a completely different way resulting in a higher fare than last night's trip 'home'. Today's fare was 59,900rp (about AU$7.00) but last night's was only 43,750rp (AU$5.00). Not happy Jan! That's $2.00 I could be spending on sarongs!!

The boys stayed at Elle’s with her boys and her pabantu (maid/housekeeper) while we went shopping at the Denpasar Art Markets. We were about 2/3 of the way there when Pa Putu (Elle's driver) said that the markets would probably be closed due to Kuningan (a religious holiday for Bali Hindus). Elle wasn't happy that he decided to wait until almost the last possible minute to tell us but we went anyway. (If looks could kill, he would have died on the spot!)

She had been telling me about how crowded, hot and smelly the markets were and that you could barely move but luckily for me, it wasn't like that at all, thank goodness! I'm kind of glad that it was a holiday and only some of the stalls were open as I was hot enough just thinking about it. I could still smell the river over everything else... so polluted with rubbish and leftover offerings to the gods that it stunk to high heaven.

We had a wander through and bought some sarongs and things for kids to take back to their classmates. I found a lovely set of candle holders and was just reaching for them, when a rather large rat scurried across the shelf, stopped and stared at me for what seemed like forever, then hissed at me and scurried off again. I'm sure it was just as startled as I was but I'm glad it didn't stick around... eeewww!!!

After the markets, Elle wanted to go to 'her' sausage shop and get some chicken sausages. Apparently these ones are imported already made and therefore don't have any questionable content .. well no more than 'normal' sausages anyway. We parked on the side of the street then went for a walk down one of the back alleys of Denpasar. Not the place I would have expected to find a reputable sausage shop, but what would I know? Apparently, it's at the back of the house where the import guy lives so I shouldn't have been surprised to find his pets in the yard outside the shop.

Now when I say pets, you would normally think, dog, cat or bird, right? Well this guy has rather unusual taste in pets. Check this out:

Yep, that's a lion and a tiger. And in the cage next door are their children, a couple of ligers. Lion's mane and very faint tiger stripes on the male and a lion's colouring with faint tiger stripes on the female. There was also this cute little one chained to the tree outside the cages, but we aren't sure if it's a new liger or a completely unrelated big cat in the making.


Just as I recovered from the shock of seeing these very unusual pets, I was faced with a couple of huge pythons, a fruit bat, what looked like a miniature dragon without wings and lots and lots of fish. Thank God those sausages are imported (complete with Australian labelling and import stickers) or I'd be wondering what the hell was in them!

I was starting to feel the heat a bit by this stage, so Elle decided it was time for some air conditioned shopping in Bali Mal (or mall as we westerners would say). I managed to buy some really cheap T-shirts for Andrew and Brad... none of them were big enough for Alex. That's the only problem with shopping where the locals do... everything is local sized and seeing as Alex is taller than me now, there wasn't much hope of getting anything to fit him.

Elle took me upstairs to check out the pet shop. There were Australian bearded dragons, pythons, turtles, tortoises, mice, fish and a crocodile, all for sale with no permits required. I'd love to know how the bearded dragons got out of Australia and into Bali. Actually the 'into Bali' part I can imagine there were no problems if the smugglers had the same customs/quarantine guys we had when we arrived.

We headed back to Kuta for lunch at the Green Garden Hotel. I ordered chicken satay sticks and they arrived still sizzling on their own little 'stove'. It was like a miniature BBQ complete with coals and smoke but it all added to the flavour. They were yummy!!

We were supposed to be going to the shop of one of Elle's contacts but she was closed due to Kuningan so instead we checked out the shops either side of Dianne's. I found a couple of things I liked the look of but Elle had a conniption fit when the woman tried to charge me 680,000rp for three items of clothing. Lucky she was there or I probably would have bargained her down to 300,000 and thought I'd got myself a bargain. Elle hustled me out then spat chips about it all the way back to her place, saying it was insulting that that woman thought we were that stupid. When I tentatively asked how much they should have cost, Elle replied "no more than 100,000rp for all three items; not each, all together!" Once I'd heard that, I understood why she was so annoyed.

We went back to her place to check on the boys (and to make sure they hadn't killed the pabantu!) and then went out to Ula Watu temple. Have to do the cultural thing you know! My only complaint is why do so many of the cultural things involve stairways that seem to go on forever? In between dodging the sacred monkeys, all their 'leftovers' and the busload of Japanese tourists who acted as though it was their temple and the rest of us should just move out of their way and/or leave, those bloody stairs just about killed me!!! Can you see how red my face is? I'm sure Elle thought I was going to have a heart attack on the spot!

Once the colour of my face had cooled enough to resemble a molten pool of magma, we headed back to her house where I picked up my boys and went back to hotel for shower to feel half human.

The boys requested 'something normal' for dinner, so I took them to McDonald’s. We all enjoyed our 6 piece McNugget pakit (combo meal) then walked down to check out the Poppies Lane II stalls only to find they were all closed. Brad was complaining about being hot, having to walk, that it was too dark, too light, too noisy, too smelly and just generally about having to breathe for himself... why couldn't I do that for him too?... so I snapped lost the plot calmly decided to take them all back to the hotel and bed.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, after a slow 10 minute walk, Alex announced he wasn't tired and wanted to go look at some shops on the other side of the hotel. I took the younger two up to bed, then Alex and I checked out the Hard Rock Megastore (bought some stuff for Peter), Bagus Watch shop (I'd have to sell Alex to pay for the watch he wanted), and another clothing shop that Elle would have had fits about (350,000 for one top!). By this stage, I had well and truly had enough of shopping and headed up for another shower and bed.

Unfortunately the kids are all asleep but I’m still wide awake at 11:30! Might play on facebook for a while and see what happens.